


Decoding Flowers

by featheredschist



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Hanzo doesn’t think he deserves love, Light Angst, M/M, Secret Admirer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 16:38:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17811611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/featheredschist/pseuds/featheredschist
Summary: Someone is gifting Hanzo flowers in February. Question is, why?





	Decoding Flowers

**Author's Note:**

> 2 days late, and 2 bucks short, but I wrote it, and I’m glad I wrote it.
> 
> Especial thanks to the TP Discord, without whom I would still be floundering in the fandom.
> 
> See the bottom for flower meanings and a link to where I found those meanings.
> 
> Oh, and a group of & is a time skip

On February 1, Hanzo opens his door to find one thornless, lavender rose taped to the door with a post-it note attached. The note read: “From an admirer”.

He snorted, and left the flower hanging on the door to go to breakfast.

Genji saw it an hour later, checking to see if his brother had gotten up yet.

“Brother!”, he called to Hanzo upon finding him in the dining hall. “What are you going to do with that lovely rose upon your door?”

Hanzo was grateful Genji spoke in Japanese, though it did not stop him from flushing in embarrassment. “Nothing,” was his response.

&&&&

February 2nd, Hanzo found 2 orange roses, and no post-it. He briefly wondered where the lavender rose had gone, but ultimately put it out of his mind to concentrate on the new training regimen on track for that day. The flowers were left on the door again.

February 5th, and there were 5 flowers, this time a mix: Acacia blossom, pink camellia, daffodil, a yellow lily, and one red tulip*. The bouquet hung from a red ribbon tied over a plastic hook* attached to the door.

Hanzo took these down and brought them into his room. “Athena, can you help me with a small problem?”, he addressed the resident AI.

“Of course, Agent Shimada,” she responded.

“Do you have any knowledge of flower language? It seems I have a persistent admirer attempting to tell me something,” Hanzo requested.

“I have a few sources, shall I send them to your tablet?”

“Please, thank you.” Hanzo put the bouquet on his dresser, and decided to search for something appropriate for a vase from the kitchen storage. He lucked out and found a simple glass vase and returned to his room to arrange his flowers.

Now that he’d been gifted several times, he really had to think who might be doing this. Without the first flower’s accompanying note, he no longer had the one giveaway that would solve this problem.

“Athena?”, he asked, staring at the flowers on his dresser.

“Yes Agent?”

“Do you keep the security footage from the hallways?”

“All security footage is immediately deleted from initial storage after backing up to external hard disk storage. You’ll need Winston’s permission to log in to see that.”

Hanzo sighed, bringing one hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. Asking the favor for this silly situation seemed like too much, so he let it slide. “Would you consider telling me if anyone approaches my door in the next 48 hours?” Hanzo asked.

“Affirmative.”

That was all Hanzo could ask for. And since he was expecting no one at any time, it would be easy to catch the perpetrator. He spent the next thirty minutes researching the meanings of the flowers he’d received.

 

&&&&

The next few days went without anything remarkable, and even Athena had no intrusions to report. That fact stumped Hanzo, when on the eighth of February, he found a medium sized box of mixed chocolates leaning against his door, and a single, orange rose.

“Athena?”, he growled, glaring at the offending box.

“Sorry Agent, I think my sensors are malfunctioning in your corridor. I will have Winston help me recalibrate as soon as possible,” the AI smoothly intoned.

Hanzo snorted, and stepped over the box, taking the rose with him to lunch.

Genji was the first to see him, exclaiming loudly, “How lovely, Brother! Did you pick that from Bastion’s garden?”

Lúcio looked up from his soup and sandwich and at Hanzo, “Oh man, someone likes you, Dragon man!” He looks like someone had given him the flower, excited and bouncy.

“Hn,” Hanzo growled as he nearly stomped past their table to find himself some food. He tossed the rose negligently onto the table in passing.

“Woah, hey, be careful! You’re toying with someone’s affections!” Lúcio exclaimed, rushing to catch the poor thing before it hit the hard plastic surface.

“They would do well to own up to this exercise in futility,” Hanzo gritted out, heading into the kitchen.

“What exercise would that be, Darling?” McCree asked from the stove, where he stirred a large pot of creamy soup, and kept an eye on toasting sandwiches in a cast iron pan. “Nothing for the training room?”

“No, McCree, just someone’s idea of a joke. I have been receiving anonymous gifts these last few days, and wish they would stop, or the gifter to, what is the word?” Hanzo frowned, trying and failing to come up with the right phrase.

“Fess up?” McCree offers, intently staring at the pan of sandwiches, as if they held the secrets of the universe.

“Yes!” Hanzo said. “It is a lovely gesture, but misguided.” He shook his head. “Regardless, what is for lunch?”

Their conversation rolled on to the subject of their meal, one of several Jesse was often responsible for, actually being one of the few that could manage feeding the group.

Jesse plated up an offering for Hanzo, who took it with gratitude. “Well,” Jesse said as Hanzo left the kitchen, “maybe whomever it is, is just too shy right now to admit to their feelings.”

Hanzo hummed noncommittally, and walked back into the dining hall to sit with Genji and Lúcio.

The chocolates were still at his door later that afternoon, so Hanzo picked them up and went in to his room to relax before meeting McCree for drinks that evening.

The topic of the gifts never came up that night, and Hanzo was left with the feeling of an unsettled itch under his skin.

McCree left on a four day mission after that, and Hanzo was still without clues as to who his secret admirer was.

Mei spoke with him on the evening of the ninth day, “Maybe they don’t want to be found out?”

Hanzo dismissed the idea, “The day of 5 flowers seemed to try to convince me that this was real, for whomever it is.”

“How so?”, she asked, pouring tea for their weekly origami session.

He fingered the pile of paper in the middle of their small work table and thought about that bouquet, still going strong four days later. He told her what the flowers were, and she hummed in contemplation.

“I see,” she said, sipping her tea.

He nodded, selecting a square of red and gold paper to begin with. Unconsciously, he folded a cowboy hat and set it aside.

Mei looked at the hat, looked at Hanzo, and tried not to giggle.

“What?” Hanzo didn’t snap. Instead, he reached for his tea cup.

“Did you even pay attention just now?”, she lost the battle against the giggles, her hand coming up to cover her mouth.

“So?” Hanzo was defensive now. So what, the idea for their weekly session was to just to chat, and make pretty shapes out of paper. So he’d made a cowboy hat.

So, he couldn’t remember when he’d learned that particular style.

He covered his face with his hands, cheeks gone pink in embarrassment.

“Do you have feelings for Jesse?” Mei asked gently.

“I…” he didn’t want to answer that. He cared for the cowboy, as a co-worker, as a teammate, and yes, as a friend. “Maybe,” he settled on, still blushing.

“I won’t press, but I can tell you, he’d be over the moon,” she replied, reaching over to pat his hand before selecting her own sheet of paper to begin folding.

&&&&

On the tenth day of February, Hanzo caught a suspect in his ‘case’.

“Genji!”, he roared, upon finding his brother crouched outside his room, a large bouquet of mixed flowers between his titanium feet.

“It’s not what it looks like!” Genji tried, backing rapidly away from danger.

“How dare you mock me!” Hanzo was still roaring, face flushed now in anger, his eyes sparking blue-white as his dragons responded to his ire.

“No! Never!” Genji hightailed it as fast as he could go. Anywhere was preferable, and the farther he got, the safer he might be.

Hanzo looked down the hall at his disappearing sibling with distaste. When Genji was out of sight, he turned his ferocious glare to the newest bouquet.

“How dare he,” he growled, bending and scooping the flowers off the floor. This group included two cactus flowers, two primroses, an azalea, and a few more that Hanzo didn’t recognize.

“Athena!”, he snarled as soon as the door was closed behind him. He was tempted to bin the flowers, but some small part of him was trying to understand.

“One moment please, Agent Shimada,” Athena said. She had a stopgap measure in place, arranged by McCree, just in case the brothers got into a disagreement they couldn’t back down from. This seemed like just the situation.

“Yes Athena?”, came over the speaker in Hanzo’s room.

“Code S, Agent McCree. You asked to be told,” Athena responded. It wasn’t quite a breach of her programming to have Hanzo know about the code, so she broadcast her conversation.

“A’ight, put me through,” McCree said, some tension thrumming through his words.

“Agent Shimada, Agent McCree”, and if an AI could bow out of a room, she would have.

“What happened, Hanzo,” Jesse was gentle, knowing that he couldn’t escalate the situation.

“Genji, he…” Hanzo faltered. His hands clenched around the bouquet’s plastic wrapping crinkle audibly.

“What’s that?” Jesse asked, though he knew.

“He has played a trick on me, the likes of which have surpassed all he has ever tried before,” Hanzo bit out. He stood in the middle of his room, breathing heavy, trying to hold back his dragons, and trying to temper his anger.

“On your own time, darling,” Jesse said softly. He knew this had been a bad idea, but his mission had been important.

“You know about the gifts,” Hanzo began.

“Yeah.”

“I caught Genji laying the newest one this morning,” Hanzo looked at the flowers in disgust. He spun around, looking for his trash can, and threw the bouquet with force. The flowers hit the plastic can with a THUNK.

“That doesn’t seem like your brother.”

“No, it does not, but I…” he slumped, anger draining out of him. “Who would put him up to this? Why won’t they reveal themselves?”

“I’m not sure darling, but I hope they have a good reason,” Jesse said, feeling like a heel. It had been a good idea in hindsight.

“It’s not like I’m worth all this effort. Who’d want to be with a monster like me?” Hanzo went to his bed, and crashed on it, face first.

“You all right?” Jesse asked.

“Mphf,” came the response. Athena privately reassured McCree that Hanzo was still all right.

“Well darling, whomever it is, must be super shy, but wants to make sure you know they are important to them. What’s not to like? You’re easy on the eyes…”

Hanzo scoffed at that.

“You’re smart, a dry wit, loyal, helpful, and damn fine shot with that bow o’yers.” Jesse was digging his grave, but at least he wasn’t face to face with Hanzo, who’d know in an instant it was him.

Hanzo huffed into his pillow, but eventually turned over to speak clearly, “Surely the mission you are on is more important?”

“Not at the moment. I’m just getting some downtime,” Jesse assured him.

“I will not harm my brother, but I think I will keep to myself for the day.”

“That’s fine. Athena, let Winston know, all right? And Hanzo? Call me if you need anything, and I do mean anything,” Jesse said before disconnecting.

“Thank you Athena. I am sorry I was so snappish earlier,” Hanzo sat up and rolled his shoulders, releasing the tension still held there.

“No apologies necessary Agent Shimada. And Winston knows you are taking the day for yourself.”

“I will send a message to my brother then,” Hanzo got up to retrieve his tablet, opening it to a page still focused on the language of flowers. Reminded he didn’t recognize all the flowers in the latest bunch, he asked, “can you help me identify those flowers please?”

“You have an azalea, bittersweet, a camellia, a chrysanthemum, forsythia, gladiolus, the primroses, and cactus flowers,” Athena told him. He quickly scribbled the names in a note tab, and then went back to the web page that showed meanings.

“Let’s see, ‘take care of yourself’; hmpf, I suppose. Truth? About what? Hn...the camellia is red, so that’s ‘a flame in my heart’...trite. The mum is ‘wonderful’? What about me is wonderful? Delusional fool.” Hanzo read each one and scrawled the kanji definitions in place on the note he’d started. “And anticipation? Deep sincerity? And supposedly this admirer can’t live without me, but endures...for what reason?”

The flowers were baffling, more so than the bouquet from five days previously. Both together were mind boggling. Hanzo reeled from the picture he was putting together. Whomever this was, they definitely seemed to care about Hanzo, but he still held some disbelief in the idea that he was desirable.

With a scoff, he opened up the messenger application on his tablet and sent a note of apology to his brother, and invited him to tea later that day. He would have to also make an apology in person.

 

&&&&

Jesse returned two days later, having heard from both Genji and Hanzo that they’d made up. Genji had assured his brother that he was not pranking him, and Hanzo had apologized and taken Genji out for dinner once.

Whoever was Hanzo’s secret admirer had done a good job on hiding themselves. The only real clue Hanzo had was that Athena was a willing accomplice. There were not many that could co-opt her in such a fashion. And of the ones that could, well, one was stepping off the transport soon after it landed.

“How was your mission?” Hanzo asked as Jesse joined him in the hangar.

“Boring, but fruitful. I just have to turn over my report to Winston and I’m officially done,” Jesse answered, smiling at his friend.

“Would you like to go to dinner?” Hanzo asked.

Surprised, Jesse looked at him, wondering whether the jig was up. “Sure darling. Any special occasion?”, he tested the waters.

“Just a thank you for the other day,” Hanzo shrugged it off, though he was excited to be spending private time with his crush.

“When then?” Jesse asked, secretly happy to spend some time with Hanzo.

“How about we meet in the garage in one hour?”

“Sounds good to me, darling, see you then.”

They separated and went about a few remaining tasks they had before they could take time for themselves.

Hanzo got back to his room, and to his surprise, there was yet another bouquet in front of his door. He figured after the argument between he and Genji would cool off whomever it was. Apparently not. This one had a lot of duplicates, and it was very large. It was also in its own vase, a conundrum Hanzo was glad to have solved. He wasn’t sure there were any more vases around the whole Watchpoint.

“Athena?”, he asked, entering his room holding the bouquet close.

“Yes Agent?”

“And these?”

“Yucca flowers, cactus again, violets, forget-me-nots, orange blossoms, and roses. Meanings are sturdiness, endurance, always faithful, true love, eternal love and simply, I love you.”

“Thank you.”

“Never a problem, Agent. Also, I should tell you that the yucca and cactus are important flowers to the American Southwest. Yucca in particular is the state flower of New Mexico,” she allowed. Jesse had arranged for the hint to be given if Hanzo was having trouble with the bouquets.

“New Mexico?”, he murmured, lost in contemplating the combined meanings of these flowers. As he arranged the new bouquet next to the other, it occurred to him. “New Mexico??? Damn that cowboy!”, he cursed, flushing red.

“Athena, I need your help and perhaps Bastion too, if he’s willing,” he called out, striding to the closet in his room to change.

“What can we do for you?”, she asked, having something of an idea.

“I need to put together an answering bouquet. Ask Bastion if I may have some of his flowers if he has any of the right ones,” he said, pulling out a red, v-neck shirt and black jeans.

“Anything in particular you’d like to represent?” Athena asked.

“Something that basically says ‘yes’ and that I reciprocate his affection.”

“One moment while I consult with Bastion,” she said.

Hanzo changed, pulled on black leather boots, and went to his en-suite to tidy his hair. From the rack of ribbons, he pulled a golden one, decorated in dragonscale, and tied it into his ponytail.

“Agent Shimada, Bastion has agreed to provide you with what you seek, and will have it ready for you in twenty minutes. Agent McCree is still with Winston, but will be done shortly.”

“Perfect. I’ll be in Bastion’s garden in twenty five then,” Hanzo said, applying a bit of black eyeliner to emphasize his eyes.

&&&&

The two met in the garage, meeting up next to a sleek, dark blue hover car with tinted windows. 

“I’ve signed us out for the evening, darling, we’re good to go whenever you are,” Jesse announced, seeing Hanzo approach.

“Oh all right. I just have one thing to do,” Hanzo said, holding one hand behind his back.

“What’s that sug?”

“This,” and he brings his hand forward, a small bouquet of flowers in purple, blue, and yellow clenched there, wrapped in a soft, red ribbon.

“Why, those are lovely, darling. For me? Whatever for?” Jesse played coy.

“You know exactly what for, you ridiculous cowboy,” Hanzo said, reaching out to grasp Jesse’s serape, and pull him down to finally, finally get the kiss he’d long hoped for.

**Author's Note:**

> the second asterisk - that’s a command hook thingie
> 
>  
> 
> http://thelanguageofflowers.com
> 
> Thornless lavender rose: love and enchantment at first sight  
> Orange rose: fascination
> 
> The 5 flower bouquet: Acacia blossom - concealed love; Pink Camellia - longing; Daffodil - sun is always shining when I’m with you; Yellow Lily - walking on air; Red Tulip - believe me
> 
> The 10 flower bouquet: this definition set is in the fic itself.
> 
> The 12 flower bouquet: under the premise of more than 1 flower making the meaning stronger, there’s only 6, but 2 of each...Yucca - sturdiness (looked that up separately; also state flower of NM); Cactus - endurance; Blue Violet - always faihful; Forget-Me-Not - true love; Orange Blossom - eternal love; Red Rose in bloom - I love you
> 
> Hanzo’s bouquet: Ambrosia - reciprocated love; Blue Carnation - yes; Blue Hyacinth - constancy; Jonquil - desire for affection is returned


End file.
